AUGUST 2, 1951

HYDE PARK, Wednesday—I have a question today that I think is fair to consider in this column. It was written
by one of our soldiers now in camp. He asked: "Can peace be brought to the world by
war?"

Of course, there is no one today, I'm sure, who would not like to see war's end. We,
in the United States, are rearming not because we expect to go to war, but because
we are afraid that there are forces in the world—the world of communism—that may force
us into war. Therefore, we have decided that the best guarantee against war is to
be so strong in a military way that no one will be tempted to attack us, knowing that
retaliation would be swift and disastrous to any country making such an attack.

This is, of course, only a temporary solution. If we depended on it alone and in all
areas of the world there continued to be fear and preparation for war, undoubtedly
we would eventually have war. It seems to me essential that we all understand that
the military side of our program is only one phase of an effort to keep peace in the
world. The cooperation, which must come between nations, and the growth of confidence
and belief in each other, is essential to building a permanently peaceful world.

Without question the Soviet Union, which heads the Communist world, is telling its
people that they must remain strong in a military way because they fear attack from
us. Russia constantly tries to persuade even the Western nations of our desire to
control the world, if not through actual conquest, through our economic power.

Some of us believe that the Soviet Union may be genuine in its assurances, that it
has no intention of going to war. But at the same time we see signs of infiltration
and efforts on the part of Communists in general to create internal revolution throughout
the world in an attempt to bring about a Communistic world. This has been done recently
in a number of countries and we in the West must be constantly on the alert, lest
the same pattern be successful in any one of our countries.

This means that we must understand whatever communism has to offer. We must study
the tactics the Reds use in winning over converts in other nations. We must also study
our own form of government and our own way of life, recognize its values and its failures,
and yet be convinced that we can make more progress for the good of mankind through
perfecting a republican form of government and a democratic way of life than can be
made through communism.

We must show the world as we build our military strength that this is truly only meant
for defensive purposes by actively helping build a better way of life for the underdeveloped
areas of the world.

Wars are a stupid way of attempting to settle our differences. In modern war there
are no victors; both victors and vanquished suffer so much that they are worse off
than they were beforehand. The desire of all people who love humanity today is to
see, through the United Nations, a way perfected to settle difficulties and problems
through consultation and eventually to have this pattern so firmly set we can reduce
military armament and envisage a peaceful world.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR
IN PART PROHIBITED.)